Twelfth not what Raikkonen wanted

Kimi Raikkonen has said that he was hoping for more from qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver struggled for grip and was eliminated in the second session of qualifying.

"The car was much better overall today than it was yesterday. We were quick with the used tyres but for some reason struggled for grip with the new ones in the second session and we were actually slightly slower", he said.

"For sure P12 is not the position we wanted ; we don’t seem to have the speed to challenge the leaders here but the car is definitely quicker than that. We’ll see what we can do in the race."

Romain Grosjean managed to get through to Q3, but was the slowest of the drivers who set a lap time and will start from eighth place.

"The result is not as good as we wanted, but this is a very hard track to get right and we’ve been struggling for ultimate grip throughout this weekend so far, so overall it was good to be in Q3", he said.

"After Q1 and Q2 we felt positive but it didn’t quite come together in the final session. I pushed a little bit too hard on my last lap ; it felt good in the car, but it wasn’t good for my lap time and there was one moment where I lost most quite a lot of time. It was pretty close but I don’t think I touched the wall ; I’ll have to check to see if the Pirelli tyre markings are still there!"

Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane admitted that the team was disappointed with their lowly qualifying run.

"We’re disappointed with qualifying as we were hoping for a lot better than we achieved. We improved the car dramatically overnight and through today’s practice session. Romain was two tenths slower in Q3 than he had been in Q2, but we could all see where most of that time was lost on his lap. Kimi was slower on a fresh set of tyres than he was on a scrubbed set, but it’s not immediately apparent why this was the case. He looked in excellent shape with his scrubbed run"